Intern, Mary Anne Schwalbe Sexual & Reproductive Health Program, New York, NY

Sexual and Reproductive Health Intern

Posted by: Women's Refugee Commission

BACKGROUND

Since 1989, the Women’s Refugee Commission has advocated vigorously for laws, policies and programs to improve the lives and protect the rights of refugee and displaced women, children and young people—bringing about lasting, measurable change.

ABOUT THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH PROGRAM
The Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Program promotes quality, comprehensive reproductive health care for crisis-affected women, men and youth in the areas of maternal-newborn health, family planning, STI/HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence. The SRH Program:

• Ensures that reproductive health is on the agenda of humanitarian assistance organizations, development agencies, policy makers and donors.
• Participates in the seven-member Reproductive Health Response in Crises (RHRC) Consortium and the Inter-agency Working Group (IAWG) on Reproductive Health in Crises.
• Advocates for the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for Reproductive Health to be implemented in the earliest days of an emergency, and integrated into emergency preparedness plans.
• Produces tools and field-friendly guides on the MISP, maternal health, family planning, HIV/AIDS, STIs, gender-based violence, emergency contraception and emergency obstetric care for humanitarian workers to better implement reproductive health activities in emergency settings.
• Provides grants and technical assistance to local nongovernmental organizations in Thailand to expand and strengthen sexual reproductive health services, particularly for adolescents.
• Advocates for the international community to undertake a comprehensive multi-sectoral approach which protect women and girls from sexual violence and traditional practices in displaced settings.

ABOUT THE INTERNSHIP
This internship is best suited to students of public health with the desire to obtain experience in a professional advocacy organization. It will provide the opportunity to work closely on sexual and reproductive health advocacy issues, attend internal organizational presentations as well as external meetings and contribute to the daily work of the SRH Program. The SRH Program makes every attempt to respond to the interests and educational goals of the intern.

SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES

• Conduct background research and draft literature reviews and other written material for RH program priorities, including disaster risk reduction, adolescent sexual and reproductive health, disabilities and other areas as they arise.
• Provide support to projects on adolescents, disaster risk reduction, disabilities and the IAWG’s global evaluation on SRH in humanitarian settings.
• Work with the IAWG Coordinator to provide updates to the RHRC Consortium website (www.rhrc.org) on a periodic basis, including Facts/Stats.
• Attend relevant meetings and conferences.
• Other tasks as required.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• To learn various data collection and analysis methods pertaining to adolescent SRH, disabilities and SRH, among other SRH-related topics in humanitarian settings.
• To understand the research to action model and how research translates into advocacy among different stakeholders for SRH in humanitarian settings.

MARY ANNE SCHWALBE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH INTERN
The Mary Anne Schwalbe intern will be asked to organize a presentation on the Women’s Refugee Commission’s Founding Director, Mary Anne Schwalbe, providing staff the opportunity to reflect on how the Women’s Refugee Commission’s reproductive health program’s work continues to honor her legacy.

REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelors degree required, MPH student preferred;
• Excellent research, data collection, analysis and writing skills;
• Health-related and/or gender background;
• Fluency in Spanish or French a plus;
• Excellent computer skills, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint;
• Excellent communication skills;
• Certification in the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for RH required. Certification takes approximately 3-4 hours. Available here: http://misp/rhrc.org

HOW TO APPLY

Please submit a résumé and cover letter via email to: RHinternship@wrcommission.org

For more information on our Reproductive Health Program, please visit http://www.womensrefugeecommission.org/programs/rh